What Might Have Been

Subject: What Might Have Been
From: Ronn
Date: 26 Apr 99 - 12:32 AM

In addition to my various musical passions, one of my literary ones is reading alternate histories, i.e. if the South had won the War of Northern Agression, if President Kennedy had not been killed, if Elvis' twin brother had survived, and other speculations.

So I got to wondering, what would Mudcatters wish had happened differently in musical history, and how do we think the world today would be different as a result? Or if you prefer, if you could go back in time, what (musically) would you change? Knock the bottle of poisoned liquor out of Robert Johnson's hand before he could drink it? Would he have gone electric like Muddy Waters did? Or would he have languished in obscurity awaiting rediscovery like so many others?

Would you have tried to convince Hank Williams to stay home instead of trying to make that trip to Ohio? Or tried to convince [insert your least favourite singer's name here] that a career as a CPA is really the way to go?

One of my own personal wishes is to go back and find the person who decided that heavy vibrato is an attractive quality in a trained voice and do whatever necessary to convince them that they are profoundly wrong about this?

Does anyone else ever think of this type of thing, or am I just not getting enough sleep/

Subject: RE: What Might Have Been
From:
Date: 26 Apr 99 - 05:37 AM

I would like to have seen the blues and hillbilly musicians better compensated for the records they made. I sometimes think of the pleasure I get from them and from trying to imitate their style, and then I think of the small fees they got with no royalties!

Muddy Waters did more than go electric. He got together a band. I don't think Johnson would go with a band. He would have really had to change his style.

I might have tried to convince Ray Charles and Tony Bennet to leave Country and Western music alone.

Murray

Subject: RE: What Might Have Been
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Apr 99 - 07:27 AM

I'd like there to have been recording equipment available around all of the campfires of Native Americans and early American western settlers, as well as the earlier days in New England, and in the UK, and the Casbah, and far East, and, oh, well, you get the idea, almost everywhere!

No, I don't think you're lacking sleep, at least this isn't a symptom, I don't think! This was a really neat idea! Thanks!

katlaughing

Subject: RE: What Might Have Been
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 26 Apr 99 - 07:39 AM

My grandad wouldn't have lent his motorbike to T. E. Laurence!

Subject: RE: What Might Have Been
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 26 Apr 99 - 03:20 PM

Where would Jimi Hendrix have taken his music had the ambulance got their sooner? I believe that he would have continued to go in the direction he was taking with "A Band of Gypsies", a sound more rooted in blues and R & B. Imagine what he could have done with today's technology. I believe that both Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison would have faded into obscurity had it not been for their death at the peak of their careers. Where would Johnny Winter and Joe Cocker be today if they didn't have to take time out at the peak of their careers to kick a heroin habit?

I believe that Robert Johnson would have continued to write brilliant music, I think that he would have embraced electric music as he was an innovator.

And finally, what the heck would we be listening to today if it weren't for the work of Lomax et al bringing music to the masses that they would never have heard otherwise?

Subject: RE: What Might Have Been
From: The Shambles
Date: 26 Apr 99 - 04:00 PM

Would that the classical composers had at their disposal all our modern sequencers and recording equipment. Then music would have not got locked in to the idea that only written down stuff was worth listening to and teaching.

Subject: RE: What Might Have Been
From: Bert
Date: 26 Apr 99 - 04:47 PM

Ah! what if those collectors like Cecil Sharpe hadn't Bowdlerized their finds.

Congratulations to Suzan & Dick for having the courage to include bawdy songs in the DT.

Bert.

Subject: RE: What Might Have Been
From: searcher45
Date: 26 Apr 99 - 05:25 PM

I'd of talked Elvis out of those stupid movies, and off of drugs. I would have burned the white jump suits. And kept him in a 3 piece band a la the '68 special, which was proto-unplugged. And I would have told him to go out there and rock away all the blues.

Maybe, I'm not positive, I'd have stepped in front of Mark Chapman and took one for the team.

I'd declare Sam Phillips and the Everly Bros. national treasures. Put em on a retainer, or consulting contract. (I don't know about the EBs, but I think old Sam did pretty well.)

I'd make "The Searchers" the American movie. Period. Like a flag or a bird.

I'd make John Prine the poet laureate of the USA.

I'd set up an assisted living home for all those old r'n'b and early r'n'r and c&w singers and writers that got ripped off. And I'd make Led Zeppelin (among others)cover the costs.

I'd banish all double entendres from c& w music. Aw, hell, I'd banish all popular c&w music from the airwaves, especially if the guy wears a hat. I wouldn't let them put more than 4 or 5 backup players on stage with them. I would banish the headset microphone, as they all look like telemarketers. And I wouldn't let anyone fly around like Peter Pan, neither.

I can't think of anything else right now. This was a great question; when do we play "what if..." with American history? Bill [e-mail]

Subject: RE: What Might Have Been
From: DonMeixner
Date: 26 Apr 99 - 10:06 PM

If Cass Elliott had only shared that Ham and Cheese sandwich with Karen carpenter......

Don

Subject: RE: What Might Have Been
From: Art Thieme
Date: 26 Apr 99 - 10:49 PM

If O.J. had crashed and been killed during the expressway chase.

Art

Subject: RE: What Might Have Been
From: Mudjack
Date: 26 Apr 99 - 11:13 PM

How much better the music would be if electricity had never been. no TV, Radios,or electric guitars.folks would have to play their music to family and friends and continue passing down those priceless traditions. Oops! no macs and pc's.I'm glad it's only an "if". Jack

Subject: RE: What Might Have Been
From: DonMeixner
Date: 26 Apr 99 - 11:29 PM

What if all those great poems were written by "Glockenspiel" Patterson?

Don

Subject: RE: What Might Have Been
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 03:24 AM

I think if Sharpe, Baring-Gould et al had tried to publish unbowdlerised songs, they'd have gone to gaol! The climate of the times meant they were obliged to clean up some of the songs. And they did keep the originals, which we wouldn't have if they'd intended to suppress them.

Steve

Subject: RE: What Might Have Been
From: Margo
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 10:17 AM

So many talented people die early. I wish life had been prolonged for : Mozart, Schubert, Karen Carpenter and her velvet voice. I'm sure there are more, but these are off the top of my head. Margie

Subject: RE: What Might Have Been
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 10:29 AM

King Kong might've eaten Tokyo, made his way across the Bering Straits, chomped a hunk out of Alaska, on his way to L.A., then swept a wide swathe of eaten cities and croplands, damsels in distress clutched like so many matchsticks in his massive hands, while he continued on to NYC, where he was vanquished by some reluctant hero known only as Liam's Brother, who was assisted by a certain contigent of the Mudcateers wielding used tiples from Canada. These comrades included such notables as Catspaw, Big Mick, Rick Fielding, Banjer, "Sables" Bill, and others. Backup harmonies, which set up vibrations condusive to the vanquishing, were provided by the fairer of the Mudcateers, some also know as Nudder Mudders or MudPhoaks, including Animaterra, Alice in Montana, Margarita, and many others of voices crystalline with purity. It is said New York will never be the same!

katlaughing

Subject: RE: What Might Have Been
From: Pete Peterson
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 12:52 PM

John Campbell (longtime editor of Astounding Science Fiction, renamed Analog) used to have a saying "You can't change just ONE thing." So-- if my own musical hero, Charlie Poole, hadn't drank himself to death at age 39 back in 1931, would he have invented Bluegrass fifteen years ahead of Bill Monroe? Or would he have taken some entirely different route that we can't even imagine? And how would Carter Family music be different if AP and Sara could have stayed married? And I would have told Buddy Holly to take a motel room and try to get there the next morning. Somebody once gave me THIS exercise, trying to explain. . . he said " suppose the plane carrying the Beatles to America had gone down in Feb 1964 and all you were left with was meet the Beatles and a couple home tapes. . . could anybody have imagined Sgt. Pepper, the White Album, and so on? Now think again what we have lost!"

Subject: RE: What Might Have Been
From: anna
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 01:03 PM

I don't know if I'm stepping on toes here. I can blame ignorance for awhile anyway. Maybe he's not considered a real blues player/singer. But I'd give just about anything if I could hear Stevie Ray Vaughn live, just once. I just found him about two years ago. I miss him.

Anna

Subject: RE: What Might Have Been
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 01:17 PM

I'd give anything for my dad not to have died when I was 18. I know he worried greatly that his double dropout only child (high school AND art college) was heading in a totally unemployable direction. To have had him in the audience the first time I played a concert would have been sheer magic to me. I would have surprised him by playing "the Blue Tail Fly", which I never played for him before when he asked because I thought it was too corny!

He probably would not have thought that folk music was something you could have made much of a living at (he was right of course) but I think he would have realised that I'd found my way, and would be fine.

rick

Subject: RE: What Might Have Been
From: Bert
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 01:35 PM

Oh you're right Steve, they would have gone to gaol for certain. They published them the best way they could and preserved a treasure for us. But we were only playing 'what if' after all. And if I had said 'What if religious busy bodies had kept their prudish morals to themselves' I would have upset someone.

Bert.

Subject: RE: What Might Have Been
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 28 Apr 99 - 02:15 AM

I think Steve's point should be stressed a bit more: Cecil Sharp may not have published his original bawdy texts, but neither did he destroy them or refuse to take them down in the first place. Indeed, his original notations have been preserved and many have now been printed from them, since things have lightened up a bit in the publishing world. Remember, Sharp was operating under the theory that teaching these traditional songs to children in the schools would encourage them to embrace the rich heritage of their own traditions. He therefore did what he felt was appropriate to further that goal. But he was not the prude who would destroy the real thing out of some misplaced sense of propriety, for which we ought to give him credit and be grateful for his immense contribution.

Sandy

Subject: RE: What Might Have Been
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 28 Apr 99 - 03:23 AM

And if the guardians of our morals had never been, we might not even have had such a wealth of song in the first place. I think a lot of our "popular culture" - horrible phrase! - is the way it is because of social pressures of this kind.

Steve

Subject: RE: What Might Have Been
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 28 Apr 99 - 04:55 PM

What if recording capabilities had been available much earlier and Alan Lomax's grandfather had gone to the Mississippi Delta. We have only hints about what "blues" were like before recording began. We can guess and make hypotheses comparing "blues" to African music of the time, but we do not know for sure. Remember Lomax went to the prison farms hoping to find music unchanged since the time of slavery. He didn't think he found it.

I would love to have heard what preceded.

Roger in Baltimore